


Truer Words Were Never Spoken

by beedekka



Category: The Expendables (Movies), Under Siege (1992)
Genre: M/M, Truth Serum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 18:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9620138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beedekka/pseuds/beedekka
Summary: Casey rescues Barney.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/gifts).



> Casey Ryback as an Expendable? A genius prompt, thedevilchicken <3

Barney had experimentally wriggled his arms in every direction possible about ten times already, but he commenced the action again. Then he stopped with an exasperated snort. _They’re fucking metal restraints, Ross,_ he reality-checked himself. _This is a room set up for interrogation. They’re hardly going to crack open so you can escape at the first opportunity._

There was a mirror on the wall in front of him and the fact that he was probably being watched as he squirmed fruitlessly about annoyed him intensely. He looked at his image in the glass and frowned hard. How was he going to play this one? What was his best move?

Presently he heard the click of the lock and the door swung open to admit a weaselly-faced man in an expensive suit, accompanied by a big grunt with no such dress sense. Having watched them enter, Barney reverted his gaze straight ahead and stared impassively into the mirror once more. He expected to see the grunt stepping up to weigh in on him, but the blows didn’t come. Instead, weaselface moved over to a metal cupboard and opened it. Barney assumed it contained the implements the bastard needed to perform whatever particular brand of torture he favoured. _Perfect. Just fuckin’ perfect,_ he thought bitterly. _We’re going psycho all the way for this one._

When the man turned around, there was no sharp glint of a hook or scalpel to catch in Barney’s peripheral vision, and his blood ran cold at what he _could_ see: the syringe in the man’s hand, and the looped rubber strip hanging from his fingers. _Fuck no!_

Barney sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with any fucking chemical these idiots could be about to inject him with, and he began twisting and fighting the restraints again in earnest as the weasel advanced on him. The metal remained unyielding however, and the grunt was right there to hold him down even harder. _Shit._ Barney clenched his eyes shut as the needle bit. Now he really needed one of his team to make it here fast.

 

*** 

 

When he blinked his eyes open again, he was alone in the room with some kind of urgent metallic thunking jarring his mind, and it took him way too long to decide whether the sound was his heartbeat roaring in his ears or actually something real and beyond him. He finally figured that if his pulse was _that_ irregular then he was having a major coronary incident, and the rest of his body felt far too calm for that… It had to be the cavalry.

Sure enough, the door buckled under the relentless barrage and it was Casey who burst through it.

“Ross! Finally, I got you - I bust open nearly every damn door in this place!”

Barney watched him rush over and take in the metal restraints before reaching right for the bond that was encircling his left forearm and trying to prise it apart.

“Did you see where they have the keys?”

Barney shook his head.

“Then I’ll break ‘em open,” Casey muttered, eyes darting around the room. He returned swiftly to the door, bracing against it and wrenching part of the closing mechanism at the top away from the wall to give himself a makeshift lever.

 _Always smart,_ Barney thought, as Casey hurried back and got to work on jemmying the bands apart. The one on his left arm gave almost immediately, some kind of invisible weakness in the metal showing itself under pressure and cracking the cuff enough that Barney would be able to force his wrist up through it. _That’s good. That’s quick._

Casey turned his attention to the other arm, repositioning the lever and bending it backward. That side clearly wasn’t going to play along so obligingly, and Barney saw him grimace.

“Hey, I could use your weight on here too, any time you wanna not just admire me doing all the work,” Casey chided. “I know it’s second nature, but…” He paused and then swore under his breath, as if the irony in Barney - of all people - sitting back and letting someone else take the strain had clanged loud enough to make him suddenly think about it.

_Well, there_ is _a whole lot of you worth admiring, right?_

Casey had abruptly shifted focus to his face, reaching out to carefully angle it towards his own with fingers splayed around his jaw, and Barney appreciated the touch; Casey’s hands were warm and reassuring against his skin. _Nice_.

“Dammit, they’ve drugged you up to the eyeballs. Motherfuckers.” Casey grasped him firmly by the shoulders, and, locking eyes with him, spoke more urgently. “Barney! We have to get out of here.”

Barney stared intently back at him.

 _Beautiful eyes… you have beautiful eyes._

“Come on, Ross, get with it. I need you to stand up!” Casey bit his lip – which Barney appreciated, too – then he shot a worried look towards the door.

_Don’t look away…_

“Listen to me; we’ve got to try and get out of here,” Casey continued. “I’m going to rip this goddamn metal cuff open and help you to get up, okay? And you gotta put one foot in front of the other ‘cause I can’t fucking carry you all the way to the evac.”

Barney nearly smiled. _False modesty – you could do that. You_ would _do that, and you know it._

“Do I?” Casey grunted, going back to prying open the remaining restraint, and Barney slowly processed the realisation that he’d probably been thinking out loud since six sentences ago.

“Well, fuck.”

“Uh huh, so it turns out that might be something both of us have had on our minds. But maybe let’s save the big conversation until we’re safely out of here, hey?” Casey replied.

With one final wrench of the improvised lever, Barney’s arm jerked free of the metal band, and he found himself being hoisted ass-over-head across Casey’s back before he even had the option to test his own legs. Apparently the tiny triumph of being right about Casey’s willingness to carry him was enough to take the edge off the indignity of getting baggage-slung on his hefty shoulders, and as Barney let the world slip back into a chemical haze, his last coherent thought was that Casey better have meant that about the fuck conversation… 

 

Running haphazardly down the corridor towards an open door to the outside, Casey repositioned his unconscious cargo and nodded his head between breaths. “Oh, I did, Barney,” he answered. “I did.” 

 

-fin


End file.
